off.
There was service in Mora Church, and the sound of the organ and choir
was heard along the lake. Many friends and relatives of the wandering
Elfdalians were on the little wooden pier to bid them adieu. "God's
peace be with thee!" was a parting salutation which I heard many times
repeated. At last we got fairly clear and paddled off through the
sepia-coloured water, watching the softly undulating shores, which soon
sank low enough to show the blue, irregular hills in the distant
background. Mora spire was the central point in the landscape, and
remained visible until we had nearly reached the other end of the lake.
The Siljan has a length of about twenty-five miles, with a breadth of
from six to ten. The shores are hilly, but only moderately high, except
in the neighborhood of Rattvik, where they were bold and beautiful. The
soft slopes on either hand were covered with the yellow pillars of the
ripe oats, bound to upright stakes to dry. From every village rose a
tall midsummer pole, yet laden with the withered garlands of Sweden's
fairest festival, and bearing aloft its patriotic symbol, the crossed
arrows of Dalecarlia. The threatened storm broke and dispersed as we
left Mora, and strong sun-bursts between the clouds flashed across
these pastoral pictures.

Soon after we left, a number of the men and women collected together on
the after-deck, and commenced singing hymns, which occupation they kept
up with untiring fervour during the whole voyage. The young girls were
remarkable for weight and solidity of figure, ugliness of face, and
sweetness of voice. The clear, ringing tones, with a bell-like purity
and delicious _timbre_, issued without effort from between their thick,
beefy lips, and there was such a contrast between sound and substance,
that they attracted my attention more than I should have thought
possible. Some of the men, who had heard what we were, entered into
conversation with us. I soon discovered that they were all Lasare, and
one of them, who seemed to exercise a kind of leadership, and who was a
man of considerable intelligence, gave me a good deal of information
about the sect. They met together privately, he said, to read the New
Testament, trusting entirely to its inspired pages for the means of
enlightenment as to what was necessary for the salvation of their souls.
The clergy stood between them and the Voice of God, who had spoken not
to a particular class, but to all mankind. They were lia